Need to practice your maths skills? Join our online Maths Intensives sessions
Are you undertaking any units in which you’ll need to unpack mathematical or statistical concepts? If it has been a while since you last crunched some numbers, or you perhaps lack confidence when it comes to tackling maths subjects, we encourage you to join our upcoming online Maths Intensives sessions to build and enhance your maths skills.
This month, we’re offering five one-hour maths sessions for students who would like to refresh and extend their maths in readiness. All sessions are on Zoom and facilitated by our maths team and our student Maths Mentors, and will include an introduction to some of our latest maths resources.
Senior Maths Mentor Viv Doan gave us some insights into how Maths Mentors and the Maths Intensives sessions could benefit you.
What are common problems or questions that you repeatedly encounter in students studying maths?
I think one of the common problems I’ve seen amongst students, is not knowing where to start or how to approach a question. Given that the underpinning concepts for most mathematical questions are either numeracy, algebra, statistics and/or geometry, some students may feel overwhelmed and not know how to start a question if they aren’t confident with these topics. Establishing a strong basis of knowledge helps students identify what topic the question relates to, and it gives you direction with how to break down the question and utilise the information provided to solve for the answer. It’s not uncommon for students to find these mathematical concepts challenging — good thing the Maths Mentor team can help!
For students who may lack confidence or practice in studying maths, what advice would you give them?
Practise, practise, practise! Oftentimes assessment questions will be similar to questions that you’ve done in seminars, practicals or throughout your unit. By using the materials provided by your Unit Chair (as well as resources like the Foundation Maths Program offered by Maths Mentors and Maths Intensive sessions), you can identify patterns in how to solve questions; ultimately building your confidence. The Maths Mentor team are always happy to help go through non-assessment resources with students, and I personally find (both as a Maths Mentor and student myself) that discussing practice materials with another person provides me new insight that helps me tackle questions with more confidence.
Why would you encourage a student to attend a Maths Intensives session – what can they expect from a session?
There will be five maths sessions running from Monday 15 to Friday 19 June and they’re a great way for students to refresh and further their mathematical skills to prepare for the upcoming study period. You will be working with friendly Maths Mentors that will run through basic concepts that are fundamental to understanding maths. Students are also more than welcome to ask questions (and I promise there is no such thing as a silly question!). We hope to see you there!
Join a Maths Intensives session below!
Pick and choose which sessions you would like to attend based on your interests and study requirements. Remember to register and to acquaint yourself with the content in each session via Deakin’s Foundation Maths Program.
Maths Intensives session 1: Warming up with Numeracy
Monday 15 June, 12–1pm | Register now
This session will exercise your knowledge of positive and negative numbers, order of arithmetical operations, manipulating fractions, three-way conversion between fractions, decimals, and percentages.
Maths Intensives session 2: A brisk workout with Algebra
Tuesday 16 June, 12–1pm | Register now
This session will run you through substitution, expanding and factorising, solving linear equations, and worded problems.
Maths Intensives session 3: Improving your stamina with Statistics
Wednesday 17 June, 12–1pm | Register now
This session will extend your endurance with categorical and numerical data, the 3Ms (mean, mode, median), and the standard deviation.
Maths Intensives session 4: Getting in shape with Geometry
Thursday 18 June, 12–1pm | Register now
This session will prepare you for the challenge to get the better of perimeter, area, surface area, volume, along with angles and similar triangles.
Maths Intensives session 5: Exercising your fundamentals
Friday 19 June, 12–1pm | Register now
This session is hosted by the Maths Mentors and allows you to discuss any questions relating to the sessions on Numeracy, Algebra, Geometry and Statistics. It is recommended that you have attended at least one of the Maths Intensive sessions prior to attending.
Got a question?
Email mathsmentors@deakin.edu.au.
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